Made with an I-hook, 4 skeins of Red Heart Soft, and a bunch of crocodile stitch. I worked from the bottom up, doing the bottom crocodile stitches first, then double crocheting until the mid-point on my hips. At that point, I did a few rounds of single crochet because it helps lengthen my torso and doesn't make me look quite so top-heavy.

Once that was complete, I went back to double crochet, then fastened off under my arms and did the armholes in three parts (left front, right front, and the back piece all at once. I seamed those together to make the neckline, and that gets us to picture one.

To get to picture two, I made two sleeve caps starting with a single crocodile stitch and increasing as I worked up. Then I did a round of single crochet around the neckline and then worked crocodile stitches all the way around, decreasing a couple of times as I added rows to better shape the neck. Lastly, I attached the sleeve caps using a slip stitch seam, and boom. Tunic or top or minidress or however I'll end up wearing it.

I rocked you!!!! This is a wonderful job. Not real fond of the color, but you perhaps like it. I would love to see one in PURPLE!!!! Great stitching, great tutorial, and a great way to fashion a wonderful garment. Sounds like you modified things a bit, and didn't actually follow a real pattern, and that is GREAT! It shows that you know what you are doing, and how to get there. I hope you enjoy wearing it, and get many compliments on it.

I rocked you!!!! This is a wonderful job. Not real fond of the color, but you perhaps like it. I would love to see one in PURPLE!!!! Great stitching, great tutorial, and a great way to fashion a wonderful garment. Sounds like you modified things a bit, and didn't actually follow a real pattern, and that is GREAT! It shows that you know what you are doing, and how to get there. I hope you enjoy wearing it, and get many compliments on it.

~T

Thank you so much! The color is actually a dark teal, which I don't think shows up quite right in the pics. The only reason it's not purple is because I have so much purple in my wardrobe at this point I intentionally don't use it a lot.

It's actually a completely improvised pattern. I learned how to stitch to my measurements thanks to a great pencil skirt tutorial from way back:

This is great. I love crochet dresses and I am impressed at the way you used the crocodile stitch so effectively. It is not a stitch that inspires me at all but I love the way you have used it at the neckline, sleeves and hem so perhaps I need to look again at using it myself.And thank you very much for the link to the tutorial.

This is great. I love crochet dresses and I am impressed at the way you used the crocodile stitch so effectively. It is not a stitch that inspires me at all but I love the way you have used it at the neckline, sleeves and hem so perhaps I need to look again at using it myself.And thank you very much for the link to the tutorial.

I was not particularly enthused with the stitch when I first saw it, but then I wanted to learn it just to learn it and it's grown on me a lot. I think it's a great statement stitch and don't find myself loving stuff where it's the only stitch, but it's definitely got its uses.

Hope the tutorial is helpful! It was a real eye-opener for me on how to understand gauge and how I could use it to make things that fit me the way I wanted them to fit just by knowing how many stitches per inch and how many inches I was around.

I'm so impressed that you made this without a pattern, but I guess someone always has to make up a pattern first for everyone to use, and you're that someone.

I'm trying to figure out how to translate for other people, but it's based on knowing my measurements and knowing when to increase and decrease, so it's difficult. The tutorial I posted further up the thread was basically how I started working without a pattern because it's all about using your measurements to get a well-fitted garment. I like it a lot.